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The cold snaps are also threatening the lives of around 6,000 Yamal-Nenets people who are said to be among the last truly nomadic reindeer herders in the Arctic.

The immediate cause of the mass reindeer deaths in 2006 and 2013 was early snowfall followed by unusually warming temperatures - and then a sudden deep freeze.

In both cases, the ice remained until late spring of the following year causing mass starvation of the deer.

'The likely trigger was brief periods of Barents and Kara sea ice retreat during early November,' according to the Western scientists from the universities of Lapland and Oxford, along with other major institutions.

Blaming the freak conditions on climate change, they also claim that real-time monitoring of these two Arctic seas could give reindeer herders warnings of such deep freezes.

The area was this summer hit by the release of decades-old anthrax due to a heatwave - also blamed by some scientists on climate change - which thawed the permafrost where the disease was trapped.

One boy and 2,349 reindeer were killed.

Tens of thousands of reindeer have died in the Yamal peninsula in northern Siberia due to the ground being covered with thick ice for months leaving the animals unable to graze

The cold snaps are also threatening the lives of around 6,000 Yamal-Nenets people who are said to be among the last truly nomadic reindeer herders in the Arctic

The ice remained until late spring of the following year causing mass starvation of the deer

'The most recent rain-on-snow event of November 2013 resulted in 61,000 reindeer deaths, about 2 per cent out of 275,000 reindeer on the Yamal Peninsula,' said Professor Bruce Forbes, from the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, Finland.

Comparing the incident with a similar occurrence in 2006 when 20,000 perished, he said there was more 'heavy rain' over a 'much larger area'.

'Instead of a crust forming on the surface of the snow, the snowpack was saturated from top to bottom,' he told The Siberian Times.

'The air temperature dropped right after the snow froze into a solid block from top to bottom, and frozen to the ground beneath.

The researchers propose closely monitoring the two Arctic seas in a bid to warn herders about the coming abnormal conditions

'That is the most severe case.

'Modeling projects that such severe events are likely to become more frequent in the future.'

Professor Forbes added: 'In a normal year, crusted snow patches are common, but herds can be relatively easily led to nearby areas with softer snow.

'The reason the 2013 event was so catastrophic was that heavy rains saturated much of the snow cover from top to bottom, so when air temperatures plummeted the pastures were frozen beneath a thick, heavy layer of ice.

'This left animals locked completely out of pastures across the entire southern Yamal Peninsula, an area covering some 27,000 square kilometres.'

The researchers propose closely monitoring the two Arctic seas in a bid to warn herders about the coming abnormal conditions.

This would not necessarily save the reindeer, but it might allow herders to slaughter the animals and sell the meat, gaining money to replace their herds.

Monitoring would not necessarily save the reindeer, but it might allow herders to slaughter the animals and sell the meat, gaining money to replace their herds

The most recent event of November 2013 resulted in 61,000 reindeer deaths, about 2 per cent out of 275,000 reindeer on the Yamal Peninsula

The area was this summer hit by the release of decades-old anthrax due to a heatwave which thawed the permafrost where the disease was trapped

'More mobile slaughterhouses should be deployed on Yamal,' he said.

'With our analysis we believe short-term forecasting that gives just a couple of days warning might be possible if the Barents and Kara sea ice extent were to be monitored in real time.

'Even a couple of days warning could be critically important to get the mobile slaughterhouses to herds at risk in time.

'That way, reindeer could be humanely slaughtered and the meat sold to market so that herders would at least receive from profit.

'In the most recent event of 2013 many smaller private herds not only lost all their animals, but received no monetary compensation because the animals starved on the tundra.'